Ways Iron Man Can Kill Thanos

Avengers: Endgame isn't just the sequel to Avengers: Infinity War; it's the entire culmination of over a decade of superhero storytelling. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has evolved and changed in ways that no one was able to predict. What once seemed like a cultural bubble that was always one box office bomb away from bursting has now made it so your parents probably have strong feelings about Groot, the tri-syllabic talking tree from another planet. Take a moment to remind yourself how insane that is.

Now, where did that culture-shifting wave start? Arguably it started with Blade, but when we're talking about the MCU, it began with 2008's Iron Man. The film starred Robert Downey Jr. (then considered a talented actor who'd ruined his career with scandals and drug abuse) as a C-list Marvel superhero. That the film was a box office smash was surprising enough, but the post-credits sequence where Samuel Jackson's Nick Fury tells Tony Stark about the Avengers Initiative? That was a whole new ballgame. Prior to Iron Man, superhero crossovers were largely relegated to fan fantasies or low-budget TV movies like 1988's The Incredible Hulk Returns. Iron Man ended with a declaration of intent that the powers that be were making a genuine superhero universe on the big screen. It was the first step on the road that led us to, well... superhero movies actually winning Academy Awards.

Near the end of Avengers: Infinity War, Tony goes ballistic on Thanos, unleashing every weapon in his nano-particle-fueled armor in the hope of bringing the Mad Titan down. Unfortunately, despite some cool tricks including hammer-fists, a shield, and a nano-particle sword straight out of Power Rangers, he's beaten back and nearly killed by Thanos. Before that happens, though, Thanos rubs his cheek and mocks Tony's hard work by saying, "All that for a drop of blood." It seems like it's meant to show that even Tony's best can't do much to damage Thanos, but there could be a deeper meaning to it.

What if getting a drop of Thanos' blood was Tony's goal the whole time? After all, you can learn a lot about a being by analyzing their blood. Sure, Tony was probably hoping to actually finish off Thanos, but he's been established as a futurist in the movies and the comics. It's smart to have contingency plans in case Thanos actually could get away with his evil plan. There's also the added detail that Tony's suit is made of nano-particles; if he was able to slip some of those machines into Thanos' body, he might be able to get readings on him that way. With enough time and resources, it's fairly likely that Iron Man could build an anti-Thanos weapon — all from a single drop of blood.

There are some serious benefits to being the first starring superhero in a decade-spanning franchise; for starters, it gives you a pretty diverse supporting cast. Between Gwyneth Paltrow's Pepper Potts, Jon Favreau Happy Hogan, Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow, and Ty Simpkins' Harley Keener (the kid from Iron Man 3 who helped Stark get back on his metallic feet), Iron Man's got some unique friends to call on for help when he needs to — and those are just the characters that were introduced in the first three Iron Man films. That's not even mentioning all the connections he's made in his various Avenging work and tech innovation. In fact, for a character that likes to pretend that he's a lone wolf who doesn't play by anyone's rules, he sure seems to love forming groups.

That quality might be the key to Thanos' defeat. In Infinity War, the closest anyone comes to defeating Thanos and stopping his gauntlet-focused rampage is when Iron Man attacks the Mad Titan in perfect synchronicity with Nebula, Star-Lord, Drax, Mantis, Spider-Man, and Dr. Strange. Numbers are what overwhelms Thanos, and it's only when Star-Lord loses control of his emotions that their surprisingly effective plan loses its luster.  How will Iron Man kill Thanos? Ironically, probably with the help of his friends and teammates. After all, the Avengers in the comics have always been an ensemble.

Iron Man has been just about everywhere in the Marvel comic book universe, but 2007 saw him taking over S.H.I.E.L.D. after the events of Civil War (which went just slightly different from the events of Captain America: Civil War). As director of the most advanced spy network on the planet, Iron Man was able to combine his futurist leanings and engineering know-how with an unheard-of amount of resources that even a billionaire tech guru couldn't accrue on his own. Why bring that up? Well, because the post-credits sequence of Infinity War featured Samuel Jackson's Nick Fury and Cobie Smulders' Maria Hill fading into dust after Thanos' snap — and chances are good that they weren't just hanging out together for the fun of it.

While the Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV series has seen the organization break up and reform and break up again, the MCU has never really paid much heed to that side of its multimedia pie. Ultimately, the idea of a global spy network with high-tech weaponry is way too good to leave on the table for long. If S.H.I.E.L.D. does get rebuilt between Infinity War and Endgame, it's a good bet that Tony Stark will be leading the charge, since former leaders Hill and Fury both vanished into dust. We know from Spider-Man: Homecoming that Iron Man is in communication with the CIA to capture certain supervillains, and his occasional work with the military in Captain America: Civil War has made him a prime leader to bring together various spy organizations under the S.H.I.E.L.D banner.

While Avengers: Endgame's concrete plot details are being kept under tight wraps by Disney, that hasn't stopped the rumor mill of fandom from concocting all sorts of crazy theories about what's going to happen. While some of the fan theories have gotten pretty wild, one particular prediction has the ring of truth about it: that the upcoming superhero epic will heavily feature time travel. Supposedly, the film will feature the surviving Avengers assembling a cross-time bevvy of superpowered heavy hitters, which will have the added benefit of wrapping up whatever loose ends the MCU needs to before it transitions to the next decade of films.

One very intriguing possibility that springs out of that is the potential return of Howard Stark. In both the comics and the MCU, Howard Stark has lived a very interesting (and very superhero-adjacent) life. He helped forge Captain America's shield, played a vital role in the formation of S.H.I.E.L.D., and in one comics storyline, recruited a Russian Werebear to rescue an alien android from a casino owned by a different group of aliens (comics are bananas). While Endgame seems packed to the gills with characters already, it would definitely be satisfying for Tony to finally get the closure with his dad that he was denied as a youth — and considering the older Stark's gift for technological invention, Howard Stark might just find a way to help his son kill Thanos.